Thought for this week
“Men’s best successes come after their disappointments.”
-Henry Ward Beecher.
Wellness starts at home. We all know that is true. But it is so much more than that. Our homes evoke a feeling or an energy when we walk through the door. The feelings can range from calm to chaos; security to unhappiness. And obviously the more pleasant the feeling the more our home can heal us.
Yet, time (or lack of time) can often make it difficult for us to focus on making our homes a place that heals us.
I would like to be able to share some thoughts that aren’t expensive and may just inspire you to make your home a place that encourages and stimulates your wellness program, rather than one that may hinder it.
Consider some elements of Feng Shui
“Feng Shui(footnote – FengShui for Dummies) (pronounced “fung shway”) examines how the placement of things and objects within it affect the energy flow in your living environment, and how these objects interact with and influence your personal energy flow. Your personal energy flow affects how you think and act, which in turn affects how well you perform and succeed in your personal and professional life. Feng Shui affects you every moment of the day – whether you’re aware of it or not.”
Because I am not an expert in Feng Shui – I encourage people to get to know their personal energy through a series of questions:
1) What makes you feel good when you walk through your door? What makes you feel bad? If thing like clutter around your entrance to your home – is making you stress – there may be a quick and inexpensive way to change that.
2) What elements from nature make you feel good? Water? Blue Skies? Plants? Are you using these elements within your home?
3) Does the arrangement of your furniture allow you to relax and feel at peace?
Answering these questions may begin to give you a hint of what you can do to create a space of wellbeing within your home. For some people it simply means that you bring in elements of the outdoors – real plants, and a simple water fountain, for others – it’s becoming more organized to completely do away with any visible clutter, and for others it has more to do with the smells and comfort their home provides – they like a nice natural candle and a cozy blanket.
Although to truly use Feng Shui in your home you need to begin to study and understand the elements as well as create a Baqua of your home. The idea is that if you follow that Baqua – your home will be at its healthiest and most productive.
Feng Shui looks at 5 Key elements – Water, Metal, Earth, Wood, and Fire. If you are a person who is soothed by water, the easiest exercise may be to consider adding the colors that correspond with water such as blues and greys. An example to add a true water element would be a simple fountain.
It also helps to understand what colors your family responds to. You can take it a step further than that and understand what the meaning of certain colors are and see if they evoke the feelings you want in a certain room.
Let’s look at some basic colors:
– Blues: As I already stated these represent the element of water. It also means for many feelings of “depth, stability, heaven, feeling good in both body and mind.”
If you agree with that statement, think about your home. Do you have blues in your home? If not, consider adding it.
– Reds and Oranges: Represent the element of fire. For most people they evoke feelings of energy, strength, determination, (red) to joy, sunshine, happiness (oranges). People often use these in offices, work out areas, family gathering places when family members all agree that these feelings are important.
– Yellow: Yellows are an element of earth. Yellows also tend to be considered by most as pleasant, cheerful, and lighthearted. For many, you will want to ground yellow by adding a darker color to highlight it. If you are in a home of all males don’t do yellow without a balancing color. Men do not respond to yellow as well as women, so you may not want to use it in a Man Cave. 🙂
– Greens: – Greens are also earth colors. For most people they also have a healing power. People think of stability and endurance with green. Depending on the shade they can represent money, and health. If you love nature and outdoors and want to improve your overall health, you may want to consider adding green. People tend to feel connected to these elements in bathrooms and outdoor spaces.
Lighting
Lighting and even lack of lighting is a key element in a healthy home. Again for novices, it can be as simple as evaluating how you feel on a gloomy day in certain rooms. Is there enough light? Is it in the correct locations? Incorrect lighting can absolutely affect health. In your bedroom, is there complete darkness? Complete darkness when you sleep can restore health. Consider that health and wellness seminars occur on a regular basis to educate people on things like seasonal depression and other related disorders. That is because (add footnote – from Southhamptonhospital.com3)
“Daylight is important to our overall health and well-being. For example, visible light in the blue region not only relieves depression and circadian imbalances, but has a positive impact on our immune responses. Complete darkness at night is essential for the anti-tumor immune response.”
Simply put, changing the color, lighting, and clutter within your home can change the mood.
In closing
When you walk in your home tonight do some simple thinking to determine if you could make your home a better reflection of your wellness goals:
– Does the clutter bother you?
– Does your furniture arrangement calm you down or stress you?
– Do the colors in your home make you feel joy, calm, motivation or other feelings that are important to you?
– Do you feel like there are any elements missing… water? Metal? Earth?
– Do you feel like the lighting improves and enhances your mood?
You may be surprised how an affordable can of paint can change and improve your mood.
For more information about wellness decor – email me at (add heather’s email)
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All blog articles are for educational purposes only. We do not diagnose or treat disease.